Cooperative Extension Service Pulaski County PO Box 720 Somerset KY 42502-0720 (606) 679-6361 Fax: (606) 679-6271 pulaski.ca.uky.edu

December 2018

► December 6, 2018 — DIY Make Holiday Dec-

orations from Nature, Pulaski Co Extension

office, 2pm. Limit 15, $10 fee. MUST PRE-

REGISTER.

► December 19, 2018 — 4-H Horticulture Club,

will meet at Lowe’s, 4pm.

► January 6-8, 2019 — Kentucky Fruit and Veg-

etable Conference, Embassy Suites, Lexington

KY. See box right.

► January 14, 2019 — Beekeeping D to Z (After

the ABCs) Session 1 of 4, Pulaski Co Extension

office, 6pm. Register via Eventbrite or the link

from the Pulaski County Extension Commercial

Horticulture page. You may also register and

pay the fee by calling/coming by our office.

► January 21, 2019 — Lake Cumberland Bee-

keepers Association, Pulaski Co Extension office,

6:30pm.

► January 23-24 2019 — KNLA’s Winter Educa-

tional Outing & Expo, Holiday Inn Louisville East

► January 31, 2019 — ABCs of High Tunnel

Growing: Design, Construction, and Manage-

ment, Pulaski Co Extension office, 6pm. (Please

let us know you’re coming by emailing

beth.wilson@uky.edu or calling the office.)

Always let us know you are coming to a pro-gram (only those registered will be notified of cancellations). Call or email us.

Pre-payment is required (not all classes have a fee). We take cash or check.

Many of the classes have giveaway items which means the office needs to know if you’re coming well in advance.

Text @gardenerst to 81010 to receive text updates about Gardener’s Toolbox classes

If you are already a grower or plan to grow fruit or vege-

table crops, the KY Fruit and Vegetable Conference is the

one educational conference you should attend.

It’s close to home, it’s cheap, and you’ll find lots of great

information for both experienced and non-experienced

growers.

Not only are there sessions on tree fruits, small fruits,

and vegetables, but also, grapes specifically, farmers’ mar-

kets, produce safety, marketing, business management,

high tunnels, and organic production. And a wine tasting.

They also have a good assortment of businesses, seed

companies, equipment dealers, etc at the trade show.

For more information on the program go to

www.kyhortcouncil.org.

Dark, short days. Running when it’s 18 degrees. Wearing 3 layers of clothes. All the time.

Being with family and friends. Hol-iday eating. Christmas trees. The first snow.

I imagine some of you share the same ambivalence toward winter. Houseplants get me through the worst of it.

It’s a great time to hike which I certainly plan on doing. Hiking trails with rich ecosystems and habitats are just a short car ride away. It’s also a great way to get some needed exercise during cold months.

Happy Winter!

It is not unusual (at least in this office) to be ap-

proached by someone who is coming back to the farm

or going to the farm for the first time. They often come

to our office with no idea what they want to do with the

land and its resources.

I really enjoy these talks. It allows me to get to know

the person and understand what they really want to get

out of their farm and

what skills they bring

to it.

However, in this

day and age, everyone wants to do things online with-

out ever having to talk to a live person. Well, we now

have that covered.

The University of Kentucky Center for Crop Diversifi-

cation and the Kentucky Horticulture Council have de-

veloped an online tool to help wannabe horticultural

crop producers decide what crops (based on responses

to several questions) might be best for them.

This short questionnaire is called the Horticulture

Business Quiz, or Hort Biz Quiz for short.

Taking this quiz in no way guarantees crop success

nor does it substitute on the part of the user to develop

their business concept fully.

You’ll answer a few questions about your experience,

your markets, your access to land, and the amount of

money you have to invest.

On the final page, it sum-

marizes your responses and

gives you a list of some crops to consider based upon

your answers.

You can print out this page and bring it with you

when you visit your County Agriculture or Horticulture

Agent.

You can retake the quiz as many times as you’d like.

It’s just a fun way to get you thinking about your re-

sources and helps you become aware of three critical

needs (labor, capital, land) to be successful.

Beth Wilson

Pulaski Co Horticulture Agent

beth.wilson@uky.edu @hortagentbeth @kyplants Pulaski County Horticulture

Water should be funneled off property

as quick as possible and diverted to storm

water ditches!

The conventional landscape is often flat or mounded in shape, which causes it to spill water rather than absorb it. A water-harvesting land-scape is concave, with plenty of low points to hold valuable rainwater on the site and keep it out of the streets, where it can cause flood-ing and wash pollution into near-by bodies of water.

—Owen Dell

A couple of years ago, Owen Dell

spoke at a local conference. He is the

owner of Owen Dell and Associates, LLC,

an internationally recognized landscape

architecture firm that advocates for sus-

tainable landscape design.

He’s also written the book, Sustainable Landscaping for

Dummies (see credit below). He convinced me during his

lecture that rain and stormwater are being wasted simply

by being diverted away from structures and homes.

A concave landscape is a type of non-

storage water harvesting system. Design-

ing your landscape to absorb water instead

of making it run off just makes sense.

By keeping water on-site and letting it

slowly filter through the soil, the water is

cleaned of contaminants before it enters

the groundwater or a body of water.

These low spots can be made into very

attractive rain gardens. A rain garden is a

landscape feature that includes a shallow

depression (6-9” deep) designed to capture

and reduce stormwater runoff.

Request the University of Kentucky publication

‘Residential Rain Gardens: Design, Construction, and

Maintenance’ (HENV-205). See below for more info.

A landscape that allows its valuable water resources to drain away

A concave landscape works like a sponge to catch and hold water

Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies by Owen E. Dell,

ISBN: 978-0-470-41149-0, 2009

Pulaski County PO Box 720 Somerset KY 42502-0720 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

PRESORTED STANDARD

US POSTAGE PAID SOMERSET, KY

PERMIT #5

The Pulaski County

Cooperative Exten-

sion office is open

8am to 4:30pm Mon-

day –Friday.

The office will be

closed December 24-

January 1 for the

Christmas holiday.

When adverse weath-

er occurs, call the

office or check social

media accounts to

see if programs are

cancelled.

Complaint Procedure

The College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is an Equal Opportunity Organization with respect

to education and employment and authorization to provide research, education information and

other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to economic or social

status and will not discriminate on the bases of race, color, ethnic origin, creed, religion, political

belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, genetic

information, age, veteran status, or physical or mental disability. Inquiries regarding compliance

with Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments, Sec-

tion 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and other related matter should be directed to Equal Opportunity

Office, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Kentucky, Room S-105, Agricul-

ture Science Building, North Lexington, Kentucky 40546.